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Impact of Pollution on Health and Environment

Pollution has significant negative impacts on both human health and the environment. Air pollution alone causes millions of premature deaths worldwide each year from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Water pollution, especially from untreated sewage, results in over 14,000 deaths per day. Children, the elderly, and those with preexisting health conditions are most at risk from the diseases and health effects caused by various forms of pollution, which include cancer, developmental issues, and neurological problems. In the environment, pollution disrupts ecosystems through acidification, climate change, reduced biodiversity, and infertile soils harmful to plants. Proper pollution control and prevention practices such as recycling, reuse, waste minimization, and composting are needed to mitigate these effects.

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Roy Panduro Camavilca
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124 views2 pages

Impact of Pollution on Health and Environment

Pollution has significant negative impacts on both human health and the environment. Air pollution alone causes millions of premature deaths worldwide each year from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Water pollution, especially from untreated sewage, results in over 14,000 deaths per day. Children, the elderly, and those with preexisting health conditions are most at risk from the diseases and health effects caused by various forms of pollution, which include cancer, developmental issues, and neurological problems. In the environment, pollution disrupts ecosystems through acidification, climate change, reduced biodiversity, and infertile soils harmful to plants. Proper pollution control and prevention practices such as recycling, reuse, waste minimization, and composting are needed to mitigate these effects.

Uploaded by

Roy Panduro Camavilca
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

POLLUTIONS EFFECT

HUMAN HEALTH
Adverse air quality can kill many organisms including humans. Ozone pollution can
cause respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, throat inflammation, chest pain,
and congestion. Water pollution causes approximately 14,000 deaths per day, mostly due
to contamination of drinking water by untreated sewage in developing countries. An
estimated 500 million Indians have no access to a proper toilet, and 580 Indians die of
water-related pollution every day.
Nearly 500 million Chinese lack access to safe drinking water. A 2010 analysis estimated
that 1.2 million people died prematurely in a year in China because of air pollution. In
2007 it was estimated that in India, air pollution is believed to cause 527,700
fatalities. Studies have estimated that the number of people killed annually in the US
could be over 50,000.
Oil spills can cause skin irritations and rashes. Noise pollution induces hearing loss, high
blood pressure, stress, and sleep disturbance. Mercury has been linked to developmental
deficits in children and neurologic symptoms. Older people are majorly exposed to
diseases induced by air pollution. Those with heart or lung disorders are at additional risk.
Children and infants are also at serious risk. Lead and other heavy metals have been
shown to cause neurological problems. Chemical and radioactive substances
can cause cancer and as well as birth defects.

ENVIRONMENT
Pollution has been found to be present widely in the environment. There are a number of
effects of this:
Biomagnification describes situations where toxins (such as heavy metals) may pass
through trophic levels, becoming exponentially more concentrated in the process.
Carbon dioxide emissions cause ocean acidification, the ongoing decrease in the pH of
the Earth's oceans as CO2 becomes dissolved.
The emission of greenhouse gases leads to global warming which affects ecosystems
in many ways.
Invasive species can out compete native species and reduce biodiversity. Invasive
plants can contribute debris and biomolecules (allelopathy) that can alter soil and
chemical compositions of an environment, often reducing native
species competitiveness.
Nitrogen oxides are removed from the air by rain and fertilise land which can change
the species composition of ecosystems.
Smog and haze can reduce the amount of sunlight received by plants to carry
out photosynthesis and leads to the production of tropospheric ozone which damages
plants.
Soil can become infertile and unsuitable for plants. This will affect other organisms in
the food web.
Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides can cause acid rain which lowers the pH value of
soil.
POLLUTION CONTROL
Pollution control is a term used in environmental management. It means the control
of emissions and effluents into air, water or soil. Without pollution control, the waste
products from consumption, heating, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation
and other human activities, whether they accumulate or disperse, will degrade
the environment. In the hierarchy of controls, pollution prevention and waste
minimization are more desirable than pollution control. In the field of land
development, low impact development is a similar technique for the prevention of urban
runoff.
PRACTICES
recycling
reusing
Waste minimisation
mitigating
preventing
compost

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